About this project

$67,112

pledged of $10,000 goal

1,610

backers

Spin a World. Make a Map. Find Adventure.

"Worldspinner is the online worldbuilding tool that gamers and authors have been waiting for. It will give your world a solid foundation upon which your own imagination has limitless room to expand." - Philip Athans, best-selling author of Annihilation and The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction

Worldspinner makes it easy to create your own richly detailed fantasy world in minutes, including continents, mountain ranges, cultures, kingdoms, cities, and more. Then, delve as deeply as you like into customizing your world. You can create beautiful maps without spending hours with paint tools, and without needing to be an artist.

Worldspinner is a tool, not a game. It doesn’t replace your creativity, but multiplies it. It is hosted online, so you don’t need to download anything and it is available anywhere. The technology is almost complete; the maps and screenshots you see below are all real examples from the working system.

"Worldspinner is going to be huge for everyone who loves creating fantasy worlds." - Wolfgang Baur, Publisher, Kobold Press and author of Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding

You can quickly create a world by selecting from a list of themes and letting Worldspinner figure out the details, or you can carefully control the world creation steps yourself.

Create the physical world. Every world is approximately the size of the Earth, and has its own topography: continents, islands, mountain ranges, oceans, lakes, and rivers. Geophysical processes are used to model climate and biomes, so forests, deserts, tundras, and other biomes end up where they make sense.

Populate your world and watch history unfold. You choose which cultures you want in your world: Celtic, Persian, Dwarf, or a dozen others? If you’re particularly fond of one, you can even order physical coins for it (courtesy of our partners: Fantasy Coins LLC and Conquistador Games). Then watch as a history simulator fills in the backstory of your world, charting the rise and fall of nations, and populating the map with cities.

Cities & Points of Interest. Each city is automatically named based on its culture. You'll never again have to say “that city to the West” if you aren’t feeling inspired at the moment, or lose track of the name of that little market town that’s on the road to the capital. The world also contains points of interest such as "dragon's lair" or “King Aethelwulf’s Tomb.” You can influence which things show up by choosing the themes you want to highlight in your campaign.

Explore your world and make it yours. Worldspinner creates an entire world with incredible detail, and no two are the same. Explore your world to make sure it aligns with your vision and imagination. You can move, delete, rename or create new points of interest and cities. It’s your world, after all, and you have the final say.

"Not since the work done by Judges Guild and Harn in the late 1970s has there been such a great product for fantasy mapping. The ability to generate adventure on a strategic scale, as well as populate it with cities, encounters and other adventure material is awesome." - Bill Webb, Frog God Games

Once you have created your world, you can define the areas you want to print as maps. Maps can be anything from world map down to details of a specific kingdom. Just as with Earth, a single world can fill thousands of maps.

Sizes. Members can print 8.5 x 11” maps for free at home, which is handy when you need one for tonight’s session. But maps are definitely one of those things that get better as they get bigger. So we’ll print and ship maps in three larger sizes:

Styles. Worldspinner automatically creates high-quality maps in a range of styles to suit your tastes. Here are a few examples:

Sound like your players? No problem! In addition to great maps Worldspinner gives you information and hooks to make it easy to come up with adventures on the fly.

Cities full of Plots. Plots help address the question of "what do we do in tomorrow’s game?" If you keep your laptop open to Worldspinner during the game, you can click on any city and see a list of potential plot hooks such as “There’s something wrong with the mayor" or “Quest for a lost book." Selecting a plot will bring up more information on a possible adventure to be had, anywhere from a few sentences to a page or two.

Visit Points of Interest. Delve into your world to find the most interesting places for your players to explore. If you click on a point of interest, such as a fishing or trading port, Worldspinner will provide you with information about that port. For example, the port was part of a Norse nation founded 450 years ago, but was created 715 years ago by the Elves before they left this part of the world. This helps to provide a consistent backstory for the game, should you wish to use it.

Track progress with the Notebook. Worldspinner provides a logical place to keep notes on what’s happened at a given place, or what you have planned there in the future. If the players come back to a town they set fire to a couple years ago, the locals are going to remember — and so will you.

This is the coolest thing I've heard about all year." - Ian Irvine, author, Three Worlds

Most of the rewards for this project include multiple parts. Here’s a comparison of the reward levels and a little more information on each part.

One Year of Worldspinner Membership - As a Worldspinner member, we will store up to five worlds for you, with all your notes, for one year. You can also print as many letter-sized (8.5 x 11, or A4) maps as you like on your own printer. Memberships are automatically extended each time you buy a new map. If you want to keep using Worldspinner a year later without buying more maps, that's fine... another year of membership is expected to be $9.95.

Alpha Access to the Website - As a reward for early backers, some of the rewards grant access to the Worldspinner website before it is opened to the public. During this time, you'll be able to generate your world, order your map(s), and help the Worldspinner team prioritize future features.

Hero of Kickstarter - Great heroes leave their marks on history. When one arises, they can break a century-old stalemate to expand a kingdom’s boundaries. Maps are dotted with cities, rivers, even nations named after these great leaders. As a backer at the $30 level or beyond, you can elevate your favorite RPG character to a Hero of Kickstarter. Such Heroes have a chance of appearing in the worlds that others spin, and leaving their names* across the maps.

Legendary Heroes* - The mightiest heroes become figures of legend. Our artist will create a bust of your hero based on your description, and we (in collaboration with our partner Conquistador Games) will strike coins in their honor bearing their likeness and name*. Coins are made of metal alloy and come in a range of sizes; backers are given choice of preferred size in order of pledge date. You’ll get a coin purse with 500 coins, 100 of which feature your hero. These coins will also be sold at retail, so they will be used in campaigns all over the real world. One of your hero's coins will be a limited edition plated in 24K gold and framed. Plus, your hero will appear in many other people’s worlds, on maps and in history. And they will be mentioned in one of the adventures being written for this Kickstarter by professional fantasy and RPG authors.

Premium Content - A major goal of this Kickstarter is to fund the creation of new adventures to be sold as Premium Content once Worldspinner goes live. However, all Kickstarter backers at the $40 level or beyond will get all Premium Content funded by this campaign at no additional charge. The more stretch goals you help us hit, the better this gets!

Sponsor a Theme or Culture* - For themes: you collaborate with the author to set the direction, and we develop it into 10,000+ words of content. For cultures: you pick a historical or (non-copyrighted) fantasy culture, and we’ll implement it — including the history simulator and name linguistics. You and everyone else can use these on your maps, and you get major bragging rights!

* Personalized rewards are subject to our approval; we may reject and refund for any cause at our sole discretion.

"Creating a fantasy world is an act of the imagination...Worldspinner has both the capability to present an entire world and the attention to detail to bring it fully alive for others." - Jeff Grubb, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms

This Kickstarter isn't about making Worldspinner; that's already on track. It's about making it better. We've purposefully set the funding goal low, so we can see how far we get into the stretch goals. The further we get, the more we can include in the release.

Most of the stretch goals will unlock new content from an amazing collection of fantasy authors and RPG game designers. This will be sold as Premium Content after Worldspinner launches, but if you back the project during the Kickstarter (at the $40 and up levels), you'll get it as part of your reward.

Risks and challenges

• As with any software project, there is a risk of technical delays. However, experienced software developers have already written much of the hardest code, and the examples on this page are all from the working system.

• We are working with professional artists so that we can bring you the most detailed and authentic looking maps, and with well known authors and game designer on the stretch goals. Final artwork and writing could take longer than expected.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $40 or more
About $40

MAGELLAN - EARLY BIRD - One map printed at 27 x 40", one year membership, your favorite RPG character becomes a ”Hero of Kickstarter," free access to Premium content, AND get alpha access to the Worldspinner website! US shipping included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $40 or more
About $40

DRAKE - EARLY BIRD - One year membership for 5 worlds with the ability to download digital maps up to 27x40”. Plus your favorite RPG character becomes a “Hero of Kickstarter”, and you get free access to the Premium Content funded by this Kickstarter, AND Alpha access to the Worldspinner website.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $60 or more
About $60

MAGELLAN + DRAKE = best of both. One map printed at 27x40”, one year membership for 5 worlds with the ability to download digital maps up to 27x40”. Your favorite RPG character becomes a “Hero of Kickstarter”, free access to the Premium Content funded by this Kickstarter, AND get Alpha access to the Worldspinner website. US shipping included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $75 or more
About $75

MAGELLAN + DRAKE (INTERNATIONAL) = best of both. One map printed at 27x40”, one year membership for 5 worlds with the ability to download digital maps up to 27x40”. Your favorite RPG character becomes a “Hero of Kickstarter”, free access to the Premium Content funded by this Kickstarter, AND get Alpha access to the Worldspinner website. International shipping included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $100 or more
About $100

COLUMBUS - Three maps printed at 27 x 40", one year membership, your favorite RPG character becomes a ”Hero of Kickstarter", free access to Premium content, AND get alpha access to the Worldspinner website! US shipping included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $500 or more
About $500

VESPUCCI - One map printed at 27 x 40" and displayed in a beautiful frame and signed by the team, one year membership, your favorite RPG character becomes a ”Hero of Kickstarter", free access to Premium content, AND get alpha access to the Worldspinner website! US shipping included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $3,000 or more
About $3,000

LEGENDARY HERO - A physical coin will be struck in your hero's honor, bearing their likeness. You get a coin purse with 500 coins, plus 1 coin plated in 24-carat gold and framed. Legendary heroes becomes a feature of many other people's maps, and their coins will be used in campaigns all over the real world. AND Your character will be mentioned (albeit briefly) as a hero of legend in a short story by one of Worldspinner’s contributing authors. Plus everything from the MAGELLAN (27x40" map) early bird reward. International shipping included.